Canadians take (dis)honours

Three Canadians were singled out for their particularly turgid efforts: Guy Foisy (Ontario), who won the Purple Prose category; Emma DeZordi (Quebec), who received a Dishonourable Mention in the Romance category; and James Macdonald (Vancouver), who received a Miscellaneous Dishonourable Mention.

The sentence that launched the contest

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is the brainchild of Professor Scott Rice, who, when a graduate student, wrote a paper on Victorian novelist Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton (the Bulwer Lyttons do not hyphenate their surname but the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest does), author of the English language’s (arguably) most infamous opening sentence: “It was a dark and stormy night …”

Here’s the sentence in full bloom:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Selection of 2012 winners

2012 Purple Prose: runner-up
“Corinne considered the colors (palest green, gray and lavender) and texture (downy as the finest velvet) and wondered, ‘How long have these cold cuts been in my refrigerator?’”